American Go E-Journal » U.S./North America

Over 30 players have already registered for the 44th annual Maryland Open, coming up May 27-28. Registered players so far include two pros, reports organizer Keith Arnold. There are prizes in all sections in the two-day event and players can participate in one or both days. Register here.

The 2017 Cotsen Open dates have been confirmed for October 21-22 at the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Registration will open soon, says Tournament Organizer Christopher Saenz. As usual registration fees will be refunded for all players who show up both days, free lunch is provided by tournament sponsor Eric Cotsen (right), and of course free shoulder massages.

After a series of festival screenings in California, Texas, and Iowa, the go documentary “The Surrounding Game” will screen on June 10-11 at SFDocFest in San Francisco and on June 10 at the Canadian Sport Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. Each screening will be followed by a Q/A with one of the directors/producers, as well as special guest Gansheng Shi 1p in Toronto. “We’ve gotten great audience response at all the festivals we’ve attended. In a few weeks we’ll be rolling out our distribution and screening plans, which includes go clubs worldwide”, reports co-director/producer Cole D. Pruitt.

The Houston Go Club is hosting a pro teaching workshop with Janice Kim June 3-4 in Houston Texas. The weekend event will go from 9:00 to 5:00 both days, with lunch included. Ms. Kim (professional 3 Dan) will lead the workshop. The event will be held at the Houston City Club, One City Club Drive, Houston, Texas 77046. This event is offered with the financial help of the AGA, for just $20 per participant. There is limited seating, so you must pre-register. Preregistration can be done on the Houston Go club Facebook page under Events. Fees will be collected thru Eventbrite. Contact Paul Howard of the Houston Go club for more details. paulrhowardtx@gmail.com

A new club in Dothan, Alabama, founded in March, has seen a high level of participation in its opening weeks, with a total of 18 players at their first meeting. The club meets at the Fanatix game shop (2970 Ross Clark Cir #2, Dothan, AL 36301), Sundays at 3p. The club features more experienced players teaching beginners, so anyone is welcome. “I have been playing go on and off for a few years and could never find someone in my area to play against,” club founder Matt Clark told the E-Journal. “So I started this club to try and increase the interest in the game and help to better everyone involved.” Clark adds that “We are all so excited to be part of the go world and we look forward to many good times together.” Reach him at mclark@bondysford.com.

This year three American Go Association (AGA) regional Board of Director seats are in play for the Eastern, Western, Central regions. The current terms of office expire this September. If you know of someone who you believe would offer guidance and service to the AGA consider making a nomination. Nominations, including self-nominations may be made by full members for the region in which the member resides and must be received by June 15, 2017.Nominations and questions must be emailed to elections@usgo.org. Click here for complete election information and qualifications.

KGS founder Bill Shubert has handed over management of KGS — the largest Western-based international go server in the world — to a new team. “Building and running KGS was incredibly exciting, and I’m very proud of how popular it is and how many people enjoy and use it every day,” said Shubert in a recent post. “But in recent years I haven’t been able to give KGS the attention and effort that it deserves. I’m thrilled that the AGF and the new KGS management team are ready to take it over! With their resources and skills we can all expect great changes for KGS.” The American Go Foundation has assumed stewardship of the server, and, according to the post, plans to stabilize it financially and support the upgrades needed to make KGS even more accessible and more usable to the go world.

“We’d like to thank Bill for his contribution to the game of Go and the Go community in the years he’s dedicated to this service,” said the KGS admin team, comprised of head Administrator Akane Negishi (KGS sweety), Lee Schumacher (KGS lelliot), who will handle KGS operations and Oren Laskin (KGS oren), who will focus on development. “We hope to continue to uphold his high standards and continue to make KGS the best go server.”

“This is a big moyo move for the AGF.” said AGF President Terry Benson. “To reach more kids and more players we need to build the community of online players into a force to spread the game.”

Eric Lui 1P swept the first tournament held at the brand-new National Go Center in Washington, DC. The Cherry Blossom Festival Go Tournament was held on Saturday, April 29, with a field of 48 comfortably breaking in the new Center, which just opened Friday. “Everyone played well,” Lui said, “especially Jiang Xinying in the second round, who I had a lot of trouble with; she played very tough.” The final round against Zhaonian Chen was also an exciting match, with a rapid flurry of complicated moves at the end as Lui’s overtime periods steadily slipped away but in the end Chen came up short on points and had to resign, leaving Lui with a perfect 4-0 record. The Board 1 games were all broadcast live on KGS and the last two games were streamed on the AGA’s Facebook page.photo: Mr Dan from the Nihon Kiin watches final at National Go Center between Eric Lui (right) and Zhaonian (Michael) Chen; photo by Chris Garlock

* (AGA policy is that top amateur rank is 7D, consistent with international practice, even if the AGA rating is 8D). Note that NOT present at the award presentation were: Zhaonian Chen, Jiayang Su, Lewis Reining, and Dennis Ting.

The new National Go Center opened Friday in Washington DC with an afternoon event featuring a ribbon-cutting and speeches by dignitaries from as far away as Japan and as near as Northwest DC. Festivities continue today with a tournament starting at 9a (be there by 8:30 to register; follow the Board 1 action live on KGS) and then at 7p tonight a Member’s Access event that includes pianist Haskell Small and another pianist performing Small’s “A Game of Go,” an original composition inspired by a famous game by the legendary Shusaku. Michael Redmond and Chris Garlock will then do a commentary on one of the new games by Master/AlphaGo reprising their roles as commentators on the historic AlphaGo match a year ago.

Center Executive Director Gurujeet Khalsa welcomed the assemblage and American Go Association president Andy Okun called the opening — attended by a full house — “very heartening” and said that “it’s clear that DC has risen to the challenge of building a community and a sustainable institution.” The Go Center, Okun declared, “is going to be e very good place to play go.”

American Go Foundation — and former AGA president — Terry Benson reminded the attentive audience of the long history of Japanese support for American go, noting that “JAL sponsored our first US Championship,” and that Japan’s Go Review was the primary source of go news and instruction in the 1960′s. He also pointed out that “the first U.S. Go Congress was held not far from here and was organized by some of the same folks who have now helped found this National Go Center.” Benson showed a go fan autographed with “strong heart” by Kajiwara and, choking up slightly, said that “go is not just a game for us, it’s something that can be so much more. The Go Center will be a crossroads for the world and that’s just what Iwamoto would have wanted.”

Nihon Ki-in chairman Hiroaki Dan (right, in photo at left, with Khalsa) — who flew in from Japan just for the opening — and Iwamoto North American Foundation Executive Director Thomas Hsiang (via recorded message) offered their hearty congratulations on the Center’s opening and wished the organizers well. Mr Dan noted that the Nihon Ki-In “is over 90 years old but go has been played in Japan for over 1,000 years and our goal is to help spread it throughout the world.” Also speaking were Mark Hitzig, Executive Director of the Japan-American Society of Washington and the Japan’s Deputy Chief of Mission Atsuyuki Oike, who said that “The go board is a universe of the entire world.”

After officially opening the Center with a ribbon-cutting, everyone headed up to the American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre in Silver Spring for a special private screening of the brand-new documentary “AlphaGo,” fresh from its world premiere last Friday at the Tribeca Film festival in New York City, after which many of the players, energized by the epic 2016 Lee Sedol-AlphaGo match, headed back to the NGC to play go.- report/photos by Chris Garlock

The Seattle Go Center conducted back to back outreach efforts, first at the Sakura Con Anime and Manga event, April 14-16, and then for the Cherry Blossom Festival of Japanese Culture, April 21-23. Two volunteers, John Richards and David Snow, put in a total of more than 70 hours at the two events. Many other Go Center members contributed as well, with at least 15 volunteers giving instruction and playing teaching games at Sakura Con. On the Tuesday following the Cherry Blossom Festival, 6 new players came to the Seattle Go Center, showing that we had made some new friends.Top photo: Sakura Con 13×13 winner Ivan Check with TD Daniel Top; Bottom: Teaching games at Cherry Blossom. report/photos by Brian Allen